Warning: This blog post is about as exciting as a trip to the library

Sorry for the delay in keeping this update. As my students would say, I just “couldn’t be bothered”. This blog, in a way, feels like homework. It’s like a weekly or biweekly writing assignment submitted online (or on this case bi-monthly). I had intended to give up homework for a long time when I graduated last year, but clearly this hasn’t been the case.

As I write to you now, I am sitting in an airport lounge waiting for my plane to Geneva. From there I go to Berlin, Copenhagen and Aarhus. Unlike my last trip, I am traveling with a friend (Aleks) who has assured me that she’s around to make sure I don’t miss any more flights.

A lot has happened from Budapest to today, so I might as well fill you in. I left Hungary to explore Vienna, Bratislava, and then Prague. These trips all went off without a hitch, and I had a blast on my vacation. It was far and away the most enriching week of my life today. I feel like I learned so much in such a short period of time, and just tried to sponge all of it in.

From Prague, I was supposed to take a train to Dresden (border German town) and tempt the Fates once more by taking a Ryan Air flight home to London. Seemingly on cue, Volcano erupts and cancels my flight. Once again, I am not on my flight. Luckily for me, I was staying with my Godfather in Prague, and was put up for an extra night at no extra cost while my travel plans were being sorted out. Getting home meant an 11 hour road trip across Germany with some of his EXTRORDINARILY generous friends. They dropped me off at Calais where I would catch a ferry back to the UK. Apparently I wasn’t the only person stranded in Europe trying to get back to England. After a 2 hour wait in line, a 2 hour wait for the ferry, and a 2 hour ferry ride, I was back in the UK. 2 hours of waiting for a 2 hour train ride later, I was back in London. The whole trip was 23 hours, and I might have slept for 3 of them. Not pleasant. At least I was back.

Waiting for me after my vacation was a brand new job. I started working at a new school in Tottenham (right next to White Hart Lane). I was supposed to go into work the morning I returned home, but I was not about to start a new job on three hours of sleep after a 23 hour commute. Of course everybody understood, and it was no problem for me to start on the Tuesday (My would-be department head was stuck in China and only made it back a week later).

I immediately fell in love with my new job. Being a classroom teacher was so refreshing. I have a classroom and desk to call my own, as well as about 4 new keys on my chain (which makes me look like an important person when I take them out). Working with my German boy was a good experience, but I can now see that I belong in the classroom
I just finished my 6 week stay in the Humanities Department, and will be moving to English after the break until the end of the school year. It’s really convenient that I will be getting experience in both of my teachable subjects.

As a Humanities teacher, I was charged with teaching Religion, Citizenship (Drugs and Sex Ed), and Geography. Unlike in Canada, most of my students only saw me once a week. All in all I taught 19 classes, with two sets of students coming in to see me on multiple days. This meant about 300 new names to learn over 6 weeks.

My experience at NPSC to date has been wonderful, although it’s certainly not for everyone. It is an inner city school that has to deal with the very real presence of gangs in the area. Drugs are easily accessible, and many of the students come from very poor family environments. While it has been a challenge, it is one which I have met and overcome, and my experience here has ultimately made me a better teacher. I look forward to working in Canada, because I think the students will be much easier to deal with.

As with any challenging school, I have not been without verbal and mental abuse from the students. I’ve been asked by three different students if I was gay, because it’s apparently not obvious. My teaching qualifications have been called into question, and then I’ve been told that I don’t belong in a classroom. I also had one student reach into his shirt and pretend to shank me with an invisible knife in an attempt to intimidate me after he was refusing to leave my classroom. Fun times.

Sorry again for the massive delay in getting this out there, and I hope that I find the motivation to post more frequently from here on out. The end is near.

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